Government Secrecy in closed settlements serves no one

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Ellis says something I try to bang in people’s heads all the time, it’s your money, you are the boss;

Put aside the corruption issue. It’s a matter of good government. And good government is about understanding who the boss is. And the boss is you, the taxpayer.

YOU pay the money that gets secretly negotiated away in these confidential settlements to who knows who for who knows what. It’s YOU, the taxpayer, who pays the salaries of the public officials who negotiated the confidential settlements. They work for YOU, not the other way around. And besides the potential for abuse, confidential settlements also allow government officials to hide their incompetence from you, the employer. What if the government is negligent in some matter? They can hide it from the taxpayer with a confidential settlement.

You can bet that when Jamison’s bill gets its hearing, the defenders of this practice will argue that confidential settlements give local governments leverage to negotiate better deals. That they save taxpayer money.

They can say it all they want. But you know what they can’t do? Prove it.

That has been my argument for ages. They tell us it must be secret, but they can’t tell us why. Because if they did, a lot of them would be in jail.

Mayor Huether only concerned about transparency when it comes to him

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Howdy Doody lays it down!

Funny how Mike only cares about transparency when it comes to him,

The council’s reasoning on the Parks Board ordinance is transparency, but Mayor Huether says, that’s what’s missing from their decision to donate the Ice and Rec Center.

“Where have been the work sessions on this and the meetings with the public or even the meetings with the executive branch of government,” questioned Huether.

But, of course once again, he stretches the truth. The Glory House idea was first raised this Summer by councilor Starr, then in October he told city directors he was serious about the matter, but they just ignored him. The mayor tries to claim no one tells him anything, ironically it is always things he is opposed to. See a trend?

What is the cost to follow the Mayor around with a camera?

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Theresa Stehly mentioned on B-N-B show this morning that she requested the amount it costs to follow the mayor around with a camera for press conferences and Listening & Learning sessions. The finance director could not give her a solid number saying they really don’t keep track (in other words buried in the CityLink/Media budget.
Huether fancies himself as a great and prudent businessman. He has a director of finance (Turbak) who pretends to know what he is doing controlling the town’s cash. This director of the cash doesn’t know the cost of videoing the mayor’s events?
An astute businessman would know how much it costs to:
  1. buy all the equipment needed
  2. send a guy out with a camera
  3. return to the office to upload
  4. store the recordings
  5. how much it costs to replace the equipment as it wears out
They both complain about the cost of recording but had no idea how much it would cost? This proves how bad the city finance system is when they do not understand the basics of cost centers. This is actually a very easy number to generate. To a real cost accountant, this could take minutes to figure out. As for a guy who has worked in the media business for over 20 years, if I had to do a quick educated guess, just to record the press conferences and L & L sessions, it would be well over $100,000 a year. This does not include the entire CityLink budget OR the independent contract hosts like Madeline and Jolene.
There is a strong belief the lack of recordings is not a cost issue or to protect the board members. This effort to stop recordings is to protect city staff from being recorded giving bad advice the board members have to follow. There is no attempt to protect the members only city employees. Our videos show this time and time again.

Mayor Veto’s recording meetings. Calls transparency a ‘slippery slope’

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Yup, like a grumpy old man, our mayor of all he sees says, “stay away”. Keep off the grass. Wash behind your ears. Don’t park there. Shut up when I enter the room. Bow before me. I am in charge, do not question me. Like a President of 40 years ago, Yup, like a grumpy old man, our mayor of all he sees stay away. Keep off the grass. Wash behind your ears. Don’t park there. Shut up when I enter the room. Bow before me. I am in charge, do not question me or my authority.

We now have a Sioux Falls City Council able to question everything and does with regularity. There are things happening in city government the people want to see. The citizens have for quite a while. Due to the way our city charter is set up, we have little choice but accept the authoritarian “take or leave it” way of the leader.

His veto of the publication rules for Park and Recreation Board meetings is another slap in the face of all citizens. He is saying, “things are going well for me, keep out”. These fine citizens have done what Don Kearney and I want so leave them alone.

Nowhere in the discussion have we citizens said the board members have done anything wrong. We just want to be able to see their deliberations. Cameraman Bruce has been to several meetings and seen how it works. Like the other board meetings he has been to, not much happens there not controlled by the department “advisors”.

Maybe the January 24, 2017 veto decision by the mayor was more to protect the advisors than the members?

Mayor Huether uses the power of veto to finally prove once and for all he is vehemently against transparency in government

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I have been beating this drum for 7 years. Huether is extremely anti-transparent, he has proven it time and time again. He used the power of the VETO pen today to prove it. He had a very weak argument that these committees are volunteers and didn’t sign up for this? First off, you do have to sign up to get on these boards and committees. You have to fill out an application, you have to submit a resume, then you have to be vetted not only by the mayor but the board itself. So there is a process. If you WANT to be on these boards, you have to do a little work to get there. And secondly, I only want honest and open people serving on these advisory boards, not secretive.

He also calls recording these meetings a ‘slippery slope’. It’s a slippery slope to prohibit recording board meetings.

Anybody who argues against recording these meetings, are what they are, fascists.